First Commercial SPOT with Industry Films Completed
This fall I started being repped by Industry Films. Childhood friend and forever supporter Ryan Wagman, Creative Director at Leo Burnett (watch his portfolio - very cool stuff) suggested me to Industry’s Executive Producer Marni Luftspring who took me under her wing and is helping me with the direction of my commercial directing career. My first task and the first commercial to go on my reel for Industry was to direct a commercial for Craig Cooper www.craigcooper.com.
In previous blog posts you can see the storyboards Jeff Tran did for the spot. You can compare them if you want to learn a thing or too.
It takes a lot of amazing talented people to make a spot of this calibre. The writing is where it all starts. Craig Cooper wrote a very subtle and unexpected comedy and entrusted me to pull it off. Bring in the eye and experience of Art Director Briony Wilson. It was a complete honour to work with these two my first time up to bat with Industry.
The imagin8r crew was agreat help. Daisy, Mikela, Alannah and the rest of the team were awesome. All the poeple that came out to support me, I cant thank you enough. Its a very challenging and competitive field and you cant do anything without their help. The spot was shot by Henry Sansom on the RED. It was coloured at REDLAB Digital and thanks to Emily Buller for putting that together.
Post production was done at Rooster by Jason Grebski. An amazing editor who was so gracious and talented. he is the one who showed me what I could have done better and even did some unnoticeable effects on some shots to cover up for my mistakes.
Then some amazing music with the help from Ted Rosnick at RMW Music Toronto.
Lots to learn.
Now all I have to do is choose wether to use the 30 second or 60 second one.
This is the 30 second one…
This is the 60 second one…
What would you do?
Comment by craig
The :30 has really grown on me. I like ‘em both and am too close to it to be able to say right now. Probably still leaning :60 because it plays out the drama but really, either will do.
Comment by Billie Mintz
Glad you do Craig. i do too. short and sweet and to the point.
Comment by Shawn Goldberg
30 sec
Comment by Jamie Joslin
I like the 60 sec..when he pauses and looks at the car..
Comment by Larry Thomas Pattison Jr
I like the 30 second one. You said alll the same things as you did in the 60 second spot and the differences are so miniscule. The first one is like a 150 word postcard story. It’s starts off at 250 and slowly you start taking out words unt…il you basically have the same story, yet even stronger and with 100 few words.
Great job either way, Billie. My rich cop would empty his wallet. Fix the grille. Get it detailed (as the screaming kids drop their juice on the floor of the van). Throw in some new tires while you are at it. lol
I love how you have shared the process with us. It’s cool to see what all goes into just 30 seconds!
Comment by Ilyse
Billie, I’m all over the 30 sec one. It’s punchy and moves quickly and I’m captivated. The whole story is concise and it works as a commercial. The 60 second spot is (obviously) more drawn out but it doesn’t work as well. I also find the cop much more likable in the shorter version. Great work.
Comment by Valentin Pricop
Hey Bill, I think the :60 would be best, the :30 version it’s a bit
truncated. Cheers, Val
Comment by Jamuck Jerome
Thx for the shout out. I agree with others for 30 sec but it was a tough choice. I think the drama really played out well in the 60 sec one if not a tad too long.
Comment by PY
Great spot, Billie. Like them both. However, the 30 second spot seems more plausible since the mother doesn’t speak. In 60 seconds, I expect some sort of reaction or dialogue from her! ;) Overall, the details are miniscule and the 30 second one does cover all the bases in the 60.